Akhatan vs the Oncoming Storm
by themodernteen
Summary: Little adaptation from the Rings of Akhatan episode from Series 7! Featuring the 11th doctor, Clara, and a surprise visit from Captain Jack Harkness! With the Doctor drained and Jack injured, Clara must fend off a horde of Sicorax from the burning TARDIS and keep her two alien men safe.
1. Chapter 1

First, just a quick intro. I don't own Dr. Who or anything related to BBC America, but I love it:) It's an amazing show and network and I'm a huge fan. I hope to attract all you Whovians or Teen Wolfers or Vampire Diaries lovers and one and all to hopefully read and enjoy. Please review and let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

"Go on! Eat up!"

Clara, even from an asteroid belt away, could hear the doctor challenging the giant star parasite. It's lips were curled upwards in a greedy smile and it looked upon the Time Lord with hunger. It was prepared to devour him with eagerness and swallow all of time with it. Clara had always heard of some of the Doctor's adventures but never had she a glimpse of the emotions he felt. He was a remarkable man, wonderful in every way, but he was a drug. You became addicted to him. Because every place he went, every planet he set foot on, every dimension he crossed death followed him. Good people would die and every loss seemed to take a piece of his soul, the eccentric light in his eyes would dim more and more. He always awoke in the morning, chipper and bright, but by the end of the day he was sullen and thoughtful. He had seen the creation and the ends of universes, caused them even, but he had good intentions. The Doctor was a good man. Despite the warnings people would give her, Clara was faithful to him to the last.

Captain Jack Harkness appeared at her side, "what did I miss?"

She turned to face him, surprised to see a few tears blur her vision, "it's the Doctor, he's over at the temple. He's facing the star."

Jack's face immediately went rigid with fear. Jack had helped them come through to the temple but had been shot trying to protect them. His immunity had eventually resurrected him, but she didn't think his ability to evade death could help them now.

"Oh no," Jack took a step forward to try to get to him but he saw the cliff side in which they stood made it impossible for them to reach him.

"What does that thing want?" Clara turned her face when a long tendril of light from the parasite extended forward towards the center of the temple where the Doctor probably stood.

"The parasite, it feeds off of emotion, off of your life. It sucks the vitality, the strength, memories, and every last drop of your soul to become full, and it's always hungry."

"You talk as if you know of it," she touched his arm, "have you seen this before?"

"Once, long ago," For the first time since she knew him, she saw the real Jack, the caring and kind man, the one who didn't flirt, "I almost died, before a young lady pushed me out of the way and sacrificed herself."

"Will-" Clara barely got the words past her throat, "will it kill him?"

Jack's face darkened.

"But-but he'll regenerate!"

"The Doctor is at his most vulnerable when he regenerates, that's when every fiber of his body is dying and the agony and pain he feels will make a fine snack for the parasite. The Doctor is at his most weak afterwards, he will not be the clever man who will escape anything, he needs rest. You should've seen us after his 7th regeneration, a whole squadron of Sicorax and the Doctor down for the count." Jack spoke wistfully, "the parasite will absorb the Doctor."

"Absorb? What do you mean absorb?"

"It will basically engulf the Doctor, make him one with the parasite. 906 years of sorrow, happiness, thrill, anger, depression, kindness- all of it. A man like the Doctor could power this puppy for an eternity."

"We need to help him," Clara stepped forward towards the rusty bike that probably wouldn't even start. The captain grabbed her arm.

"Let me go," she warned the 51st century man.

"Clara, that's suicide. The parasite has a taste for the Doctor now, it won't let go. If we are supposed to be a small snack for the hungry thing then Time Lord is a thanksgiving feast compared to us."

She did the most unexpected thing. She leaned forward and grabbed Captain Jack by the collar of his war coat. She pressed her lips against his. His flirty and omnisexual nature conflicted with his worry. Clara stole the keys for the space bike from his pocket and gave him a firm kick to the chest. Jack went flying backwards into the crowd.

"Sorry, Jack," she ran towards the vehicle and kick started the engines.

Jack looked at her fleeting form and the creatures he had crushed with his body. He regarded a 4 foot tall bee, "huh, she's good."

Clara heard the Doctor as he neared, her heart broke at his words.

"Until nothing remained! No time, no space! Just me!"

She couldn't imagine the loneliness and cold he felt.

"I have seen things you will never see! I have lost things you would never understand!"

Clara wanted to run forward and tackle him down, have the parasite eat her soul instead, but she saw it start to weaken as the Doctor's words rang louder and more powerful. Eight long tendrils of sun parasite extended from his chest.

"So come on then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! Have it all!"

The parasite's expression became one of slight distress. But the Doctor had only scratched the surface, they needed to go deeper. She pulled the leaf from her book. The Doctor's knees folded in upon themselves, and his head hit his chest.

"Doctor!" She whispered out of desperation. He stumbled and fell back, continuing to try and stand to face the parasite once more. The sun parasite grew elated and began to move more legs of light in his direction.

A rupture of space made her hair whip back and forth as Captain Jack Harkness appeared from the depths of space and time, his civil war coat billowing behind him.

"Not today!" He laughed at the parasite. She laughed of relief.

Clara ran from her place behind the pillar to stand by Jack in front of the Doctor.

"How did you get here?" She grabbed his shoulder.

He gestured to the portable time traveling watch on his wrist.

"I keep it accessible," he shrugged casually, "so, did you like what I had to offer back there," he wiggled his eyebrows smugly.

"The kiss meant nothing."

"Kiss?" The doctor gasped from the floor. Of course that's the only thing he registered through their entire conversation.

"Never mind that now," she faced the parasite, "how do we stop it?"

A cry or pain from the doctor made both Clara and Jack whip around.

"Doctor!" She ran to his side, "doctor what is it?"

"The process is starting!" He rolled on his side and Clara saw that parts of his body were starting to glow with a red orange light.

"Leave him!" Jack pulled her back, "there's nothing we can do at this point!"

"No!" She screamed, "what's happening?"

The Doctor slammed down to the floor, like a force was pushing him down.

"Clara," Jack turned her face towards his, "we need to leave, now."

The parasite's greedy grin only fueled her.

She faced it, "you know nothing! You know NOTHING about him! They say that you will engulf him, but HE will engulf YOU! Because that's the Doctor! He's lived through the Last Great Time War and he's led his people to battle, he's witnessed the death and destruction of species upon species. The extinction of his people was something he has had to bear on his shoulders for so long," she turned back to look at him, "but not anymore, not alone."

"Jack!" The Doctor choked, "get her out of here!"

Jack ran forward to his former master and placed a hand on his shoulder. Emotions ran through his face like a movie and he thought back of all their adventures. Daleks, Cybermen, The Cat People, Sicorax, Slitheen, Vashda Nerada.

"Thank you, Doctor," he smiled sadly and placed a kiss on his forehead, "time be with you."

The doctor laughed slightly and held jack's hand with strength, "keep her safe, Captain Jack Harkness." Another bout of energy made the Doctor spasm and turn.

"Clara!" Jack looked at the companion, she was yelling at the parasite. Like that would do them any good.

"You will see thousands of possibilities run through your thick and cold form every second. You will be ripped apart from the inside. Because if I know one thing the Doctor can do, is he will beat you."

The parasite screamed with anger and fury and tried to send light to her, to stop her words.

"Hah!" She laughed coldly, "you're finally understanding! Prepare yourself, parasite, prepare for the sorrow and the pain you will feel!"she pulled her mothers leaf from behind her back, "you still hungry? Well, eat up."

She threw the leaf in the air and it spiraled towards the sun. Terrified and painful screams ripped through the air as the sun parasite felt an infinite amount of possibilities surge through it. Too much.

Light began to curl and collapse upon itself. The parasites smile was now a gruesome frown as its surface began to explode. The doctor heaved himself up, his body burning up. He felt it. But he'd done this before. He could transfer his regenerative powers into another biological organism, but nothing could ever contain its power other than he or another time lord. The Doctor gathered up all his strength, all the fire that broiled through his veins. Like a clap of thunder, he brought his hands together and a jet stream of pure energy and light zipped forward, targeting the parasite. His power wrapped around the circumference of the parasite and it's eyes were cold and burning behind the energy shroud. Jack pulled Clara away from the center of the temple as the Doctor took small steps forward, gaining more power as the tendrils from the parasite retracted from his body.

"You're full now, aren't you?" The doctor smiled, sadly. With one last hoorah, he unleashed his power and the parasite exploded in a funnel of fire.

Jack had been expecting this. With one hand wrapped around Clara's waist, he leaped forward and grabbed the doctor's elbow as he crashed to the ground. They disappeared with a puff of purple smoke. The people of the city had already evacuated and Jack reappeared a 15 miles from the explosion. It wasn't far enough, they needed to get into the Tardis and fly off, but with the Doctor down for the count, how would they. Jack pulled the time traveling device from his wrist as it smoked and sparked against the grass. The grass was yellow patchy and dried, the sky was red with fire and smoke replaced the air of the planet. The explosion from the planet would soon reach them, the debris hitting them with full force.

Clara scrambled forward and placed the Doctor's head in her lap.

"Doctor, stay with me," she felt tears fall from her cheeks.

"We can't stay," Jack picked her up by the shoulders and leaned down by the doctor. His cheek was smeared with dirt and still warm.

"Grab his arms!" He told the companion and Jack held the Doctor's legs in his arms.

Clara did as told and with effort struggled to carry the Doctor's heavy body.

"Where's the Tardis?!" Jack asked while carrying the body.

"Over that hill," Clara wasn't focused on that, more the mushroom cloud coming towards them.

"Turn around, keep going."

They hobbled up the dry hill, the Doctor in between them and the parasite debris in tow. "There!" She called to the captain, "there's the Tardis!"

The blue police box lay unnerved on the patchy ground, despite the ruins and the blazing heat catching up to them.

"Open it!" Jack yelled.

"I have to get the key!"

"The Doctor just snaps his fingers!"

"I'm not the Doctor!"

Jack looked like he was seriously contemplating snapping the Doctor's fingers for him. Clara let go of the doctor's arms in a haste and he roughly fell to the ground.

"Sorry!"

"Just hurry!"

She fumbled for the key from his jacket pocket, her hands shaking too much to get a firm grasp.

"Clara," Jack laughed nervously, "I don't want to rush you or anything, but we've got parasite coming up over the hill any second now-and um do you have the key yet?"

"I've got it!" She held up the glistening gold object like a beacon.

"Use it!"

Boulder size rocks started to smash into the ground around them, leaving smoking and blistering holes in the grass. She slipped the key into the lock and tried to jiggle it open, A rock slammed right next to her hand against the wooden wall sending sparks flying across her hand.

Her own cry of pain was cut off as a rock hurled towards the Doctor's head. Jack leaped over and protected him but it cracked against his back.

"Jack!" She yelled, turning around.

"Don't," he wheezed, "just open the damn box!"

MJack knew his spine had cracked, vertebrae had been slid out of place or broken. Pieces of bone peaked through his flesh. But his immunity from Rose was helping, he pressed a hand against the spot of pain and pushed down. His eyes watered as his spine stubbornly slid back into place.

"I've got it," Clara held her charred and bleeding hand across her chest, wielding it, "we've got to get him inside."

Jack roared with effort as he used his elbow to throw the doctor inside as the heat of the parasite explosion surrounded them like a tidal wave. A wall of fire and smoke crashed into them and Jack barely closed the door. He wobbled inside, hunched, his coat catching on fire. Clara went over and doused him with the fire extinguisher the Doc kept just in case of emergencies like these I guess.

As soon as the Doctor had crossed the threshold the Tardis immediately darkened. A melancholy whine sounded within the creaks of the engine, as if she was crying. Crying for the Doctor.

He was still out, his body not as warm when she touched him but still hotter than a human being should be. She guessed he felt about 134 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Jack?" Her voice broke. She didn't want to be alone, she couldn't have Jack go out on her too, "Captain?"

"Hey, Clara, I'm all right," his usually happy voice sounded strained, "just help the Doc first."

"I-I don't know what to do," she sobbed, "how do you treat a Time Lord."

"When he regenerated when I was around, he would just sleep. Sleep for days on end."

"But he didn't regenerate," her heart clenched with fear, "he transferred his energy to that thing."

"Clara, can you come for a moment? Bring a knife or a sharp object with you please."

Clara didn't like the sound of it but she warily approached carrying a pair of scissors in her hands.

"Jack?"

He was on the floor, sweat seeped through his shirt and his face was pale.

"Oh my god," Clara bent down by his side, "it's your back isn't it."

"Look, Clara, I'm going to need you to do something. After you do that I'm probably going to pass out and die, but I'll resurrect. Can you do that?"

"What, me-alone? In the Tardis? I can't-"

"Yes, you can," she didn't think he sounded more serious in his entire life. He pressed the scissors into her hand, "please, Clara."

She reluctantly nodded, her lips pursed.

"Cut the jacket off."

"But it's your jacket, you never-"

"Do it now!" His face screwed up in pain.

She placed the blade against the wool fabric and pressed down. The coat ripped. Peeling back the fabric, a mass of rock and blood met her eyes. She almost fainted.

"Stay with me, Clara," she almost laughed, the situation should be reversed.

"I-I got it."

"Now the shirt."

Clara did that same with the jacket.

"Now the skin."

"Wait, what?" Her hands moved away from him.

"The rock is embedded between my lumbar and cervical vertebrae, right where they meet. Now, it's not like we're in an OR where we have sterile tools and a few pain meds but I need you to cut a horizontal like and pull the shard out. My body will heal itself but the blood loss will probably kill me, I'm not sure when I'll wake up."

"Captain, this is too much," she shuffled backwards.

"Please, Clara," it sounded like he was barely keeping himself together, "I know this is huge for me to ask you, but think you kissed me earlier." His joke sounded sad, "I think we've reached third base now, huh? So please," he faltered, "please, I'm in so much pain."

"Jack," even though her voice sounded reluctant, Clara leaned down next to him. The scissors cut through his skin with effort. Like sliding a blade through a puddle of wax. This gave her easier access to reach the rock that was so plainly staring her in the face.

"I'm sorry, Jack," her fingers wrapped around its tip and he stiffened, a groan escaping his lips.

"Do it, just do it."

She yanked it out from his back and he yelled with agony. His body settled back down and blood poured from his wound like water. His eyes were already drifting in and out of focus.

"Keep him safe," it sounded like a whisper but she knew Jack was talking about the Doctor. She held his hand, his fingers stroking hers as the light slowly faded from his brilliantly blue irises.

"Please," she cried, "please don't leave me alone."

Now she had two unconscious alien men in a blue time traveling machine (which she had no clue how to fly) and no idea what to do.

There was nothing more she could do for Jack, she just had to wait for him to wake up, or come back alive, whatever he did. The entire Tardis creaked and started to bake like an oven as the entire planet around them was engulfed in flames from the eruption of a supernova parasite star. Her moms leaf was gone, her Doctor was hovering between certain life states, and Jack died. Plain as that. What was she to do first? The doctor has a phone, who could she call? There was one person….

River Song sat in her cell, filling her nails. Her curly brown hair was clean and she had a manicure set next to her on the bench. The famous hypnotic lipstick was tucked away under the cot. A young and handsome guard stood in front of her cell, a big rifle in his hand.

"Sweetie," she called, he turned his head a fraction of an inch, "do you have to carry that big bad gun everywhere? Maybe come inside and play with me?"

He spat at the cell door and turned around. All day in her cell, a girl got bored. She leapt from her bench and pushed up against the bar next to her.


	3. Chapter 3

"I bet you're wondering how I get out every night? Why I'm under maximum security? Yes, you heard me right," River smiled delightedly, "I've seen handsome men like you guarding my door with those big bad guns. They come and go. Now and again I get a stubborn one who doesn't think they'll succumb, but they always do in the end."

The young guard hit the prison bar with the butt of his gun. A loud ringing noise echoed through the hall.

"Was that supposed to shut me up?"

He opened his mouth to say something and River gripped her lipstick in her palm. The phone across from her cell rang.

Dr. Song rolled her eyes as the guard walked over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"he spoke, "Yes, she's here...a what...? A doctor...? _The_ Doctor...?"

River stiffened in her cell.

The young man had a confused look on his face, "Doctor Who?"

"Give me that phone right now!" River leapt at the bars, her arm stretched out towards him. She never pleaded and begged with one of the men before, but her Doctor was calling and she never let it go to voicemail.

A smug expression crossed the male guard's face.

"No, she's unavailable at the moment."

River growled from behind her cage.

"I can take a message?" he smiled tauntingly at her.

River was the daughter of Rory and Amy Pond, she was born on an asteroid called Demon's Run, she was raised by a psychotic war general named Madame Kovarian, she had witnessed the destruction of the universe _twice_ , one of those was caused by her. She wasn't about to let some cocky man guard stop her from talking to her Doctor. Dr. Song was always prepared. From under her cot she pulled out a device. It was a square gun, one she used with the Tenth Doctor in the library against the Vashta Nerada. The trigger pulled under her fingertips and she leapt through the freshly seared square opening in her bars. River charged the guard and dropped him to the floor. A quick application of her hypnotic lipstick, a small peck, and he was out.

Dr. Song picked up the dangling receiver which had a worried and scared voice coming through it. Definitely not Doctor like.

"Hello? River? Are you there, River?"

"Hello," she responded, out of breath, "who is this? Doctor?"

"Oh, thank God," a young female voice sighed, "it's me, Clara Oswald."

"Clara, how are you? What's going on?"

"It's the Doctor and Jack. We went to a planet called Akhatan and the Doctor was regenerating but he used his power to blow up this evil sun parasite instead. He isn't waking up and I don't know what to do. River, please someone- _something_ is knocking at the door and I don't know what to do," Clara's voice cracked a little.

"Where is Jack?"

"He got a rock in the back trying to protect the Doctor," the young girl fretted, "I know the Captain can resurrect, but how long will it take? I hear strange alien voices outside and the banging keeps getting louder."

"The TARDIS isn't translating?" a cold feeling of dread swept up River's spine. If the TARDIS wasn't working properly then they were in deep trouble.

"I can't understand them that well, but no, definitely not English."

"Damn," she covered the receiver with her hand so Clara wouldn't hear. The Doctor and the Tardis were connected, if something happened to either one of them the other would be affected. She let her hand go, "everything is going to be fine, Clara, trust me. Go to the Doctor and Jack now."

She could hear the young girl's footsteps across the metal cage flooring of the TARDIS.

"How does he look?"

"The Doctor? He looks the same but he feels hot- _burning_ even."

"You said he hadn't regenerated yet?"

"No, he used the power to blow up the parasite."

"A sun parasite?"

"Yeah," even Clara sounded like she was trying to convince herself of what she had seen.

"Right now the Doctor's regenerative powers are trying to reproduce. He's hovering between a life and death state, which means he'll remain catatonic until his powers are fully restored."

"Right, how long will that take?"

River didn't answer.

"Dr. Song?" Clara's voice wavered a little.

"Clara, I don't know it could be hours, days, weeks, months, years. He's the last of the Time Lords, we have no idea how his body works. Prop him up next to Jack, so when the Captain wakes up he'll know what to do. But that's not our biggest worry right now," it was, however, at the top of River's list. Her beloved was possibly dead. Her heart wrenched and she felt tears sting her eyes but pushed them away. Clara was already scared and River needed to act strong for her, so they could have a chance to save the Doctor, "go to console and you'll see a screen."

"Yeah," Clara huffed, "I see it."

"There's a blue and a red lever under it. Press the blue one, the red one is just for show, the Doctor likes it."

Clara laughed shakily and did as she was told, "Okay."

"An image should be filtering in."

"It did," Clara's voice sounded small and meek.

"Who are they? What is it?"

"It's a Sycoraxan warship, 6 of them are standing outside the door and we're caught in their ship's orbit."

River cursed under her breath, of course, it had to be the Sycorax, "Clara, listen to me very carefully. Go to the Captain and lift up his sleeve."

Clara felt a tear slide down her face and she welcomed it. However, she did do what River said and approached Jack. His jacket was torn on the floor and his white shirt hung upon him like rags. Blood stained his body and the tattered fabric hanging on him but his face was expressionless, he looked like he could be sleeping. Sleeping in a horror film.

"I'm by him."

"On his wrist he has a device called the Time Vortex Manipulator. Cheap form of travel, but it'll do the job."

"I see it," Clara gazed down at the leather strapped device clinging to Jack's pale forearm.

"Now type in these coordinates," River read her off an intricate list of numbers and letters to the young girl to type.

"Then grab his hand and press down on the blue glowing button, but step away quickly," the older woman warned the young girl, "you don't want to come with him."

"C-Come with him? Where is he going?" Clara asked hesitantly, her hand hovered above the button River instructed her to press.

"Clara?"

"Yes?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Y-yes."

"Then press the button."

 _What the hell,_

She slammed her palm down upon the button, a jolt of pain rode up her arm as her charred flesh was irritated by the force. Clara jumped back and covered her eyes as the slightly damaged and sparking Time Vortex Manipulator pulled Jack through the fabric in time and he disappeared a moment later.

 _Bang. Bang. Bang._

A series of alien voices spoke in an unfamiliar and menacing language.

Clara crawled over to her Doctor, careful of his body and her injured hand. She felt like he was a porcelain doll with a crack through its center. One touch, one disturbance and he would shatter. The first time she met this remarkable man, she guided him through the Asylum, the Dalek's planet for the Destroyed and Useless. He had managed to provide her with a glimpse of light, a ray of hope in her bleak captivity and he pulled her out. Chin boy. After their adventures together, she couldn't believe how boring and bleak life was without her Time Lord. His body was hunched over against one of the TARDIS walls, his head was bent over his body and his flawless hair drooped from his head. The stylish tweed jacket he wore was wrinkled and a little singed, his seamed pants were scuffed and his boots were dirty. This simply wasn't the image of the Doctor. Clara knew that she couldn't help him even if she wanted, it's not like he kept a manual on How to Cure a Time Lord. She wished there was at least that in this huge machine. The TARDIS and her had a rocky relationship at times but right now all Clara could feel was sympathy. The familiar blue police box seemed dark, the engine groaned painfully, and the lights flickered dimly. She simply wasn't the TARDIS that Clara had, reluctantly, grown to love. The Doctor and the TARDIS' connection was one of unimaginable power and she would never understand the bond that the two held after 900 and some years. If only she could-

Clara's train of thought was interrupted as she was thrown to the side, barely able to steady herself with the metal railing. Unluckily, her Doctor didn't have a railing to crash into. She screamed as he crashed against the opposite wall, a box of books and other objects fell on him. The TARDIS' seemed to come alive in that moment. The engines screamed and the lights erupted in a shower of sparks. The police box seemed to have seen her Doctor fall too.

"Doctor?" Clara choked.

The TARDIS still shook and shuddered.

"What the hell was that?" she thought to herself out loud.

Bang. Bang. Crack.

Clara slowly turned her head to look towards the entrance. The banging from the Sicorax seemed to be getting louder. The companion ran to the console to see the monitor, the aliens had brought a battering ram like object to the doors. The supernova parasite blast and the Doctor's health had the defenses down. The small glass windows lined along the top shook and cracked, the door splintered.

 **"River, where are you!?" Clara shouted.**


	4. Chapter 4

River Song waited for the body of Captain Jack Harkness to show. She hadn't seen the flirtatious alien in some time, but it would be a comfort to see a familiar face. Since the Tenth Doctor, she hadn't seen much of him but was glad that he had been there for another adventure. He was a little quirky and a bit hyper and somewhat licentious, but he was caring and devoted to the Doctor and any other person that crossed his path. Her mind reeled with the thought of the Sycoraxan troops attacking the TARDIS. That bluest of blue painted machine that provided comfort, happiness, and escape from this prison had become a beacon of hope in her bleak life. She remembered the Tenth Regenerative form of the Doctor tell her about the Sycoraxan scandal on Christmas Day when his hand got cut off and citizens almost fell to their deaths from rooftops. Sounded like fun, she should've been there by his side. Her heart filled with warmth at his younger self with that long trench coat, pinstripe suit, and dirty converse. But here she was, waiting anxiously for the Captain to take her to save the man she loved, but where was he?!

The Sycoraxan general of Battle Troop 81 had finally cornered one of the most precious commodities throughout the 9 galaxies: the infamous Gallifreyan machine known as the TARDIS. Wherever there was a TARDIS, there was sure to be that notorious man, the Oncoming Storm, the Predator, the Bringer of Doom, the lone Time Lord, the Doctor himself. The 900-year-old man would feel another 900 years of pain and suffering from generation upon generation of Sycorax. No idea how the machine had fallen into the orbit of their drifting ship, the Sycorax had seemingly ended a war that had been dawning on them for ages, one between themselves and the Doctor. Their preemptive control over the Earth citizens was a triumphant capture until that one man put an end to the future of the Sycoraxan people. One man in his pajamas. The General had clearly remembered standing behind his leader as a yellow-haired Earthling challenged their mighty race with talk of the Shadow Proclamation. Once the Doctor had defeated their King with a fatal blow from a sword, the Sycorax fled like children. However, that cruel Time Lord had sent missiles to their retreating ships after the promise of safe and peaceful departure. He was disloyal to his word and now that they had seemingly caught him in his precious TARDIS, this was the perfect time to repay the debt he owed the Sycorax. A perfect time to see the dwindling numbers of the once mighty and puissant alien race. A perfect time for him to feel the burden of millions of Sycoraxan lives that had perished by the fires of his wrath. A perfect time for the eternal man to finally reach the end of his days at his hand.

"KEEP CHARGING" the general screamed at his men with menace and ferocity. There was no chance that this Doctor was to escape their clutches once again, not after his crimes, "Remember our purpose, remember the cries of our people as they died, remember the Sycorax!"

Troop 81 held the battering ram and roared as they charged the sealed blue doors of the Doctor's TARDIS. Their guns had made no impact against the impenetrable entrance, but they wouldn't give up, they would break down those doors. They would break them down even if it killed them.


	5. Chapter 5

"Come on, Jack," River silently said to herself. Where was he? She was sure the coordinates were absolutely correct, she'd busted out of the prison hundreds of times with the Doctor. In her spare time, she'd rewired the camera in her cell to have a constant 4 hour long loop of her in there. The prison guards never suspected, when they came by for the nightly check-ins she was already back in her cell. There was a whole nest of weapons and devices she kept under her cot, these oblivious prison wardens didn't stand a chance.

River was kept in the most supermax prison in the entire universe for killing the Doctor, the last Gallifreyan. First, it was illegal to kill the last member of an endangered race and second, it was illegal to kill the Doctor. So, basically, River wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. But damnit, she needed to leave now!

"Jack!" she said impatiently while pacing around the cement grounds. She was kept in her own special corridor of the prison labeled Quarter R. Her section was on the very east wing of the super-max prison, so distant it was considered its own separate building. It was located on the small planet of Boolig in Venusian space, but Quarter R was placed on the local moon of X13DZ. A half-a-mile long titanium reinforced corridor spread from the main prison to her cell dormitory. It was quite an honor actually. Every night she would look out through the small 3 ft x 2 ft,15-inch plexiglas window to see the flickering stars in the sky, waiting for her love to come pick her up in his bluest of blue boxes. She smiled, if only he was coming now, not dying in his beautiful machine. River slowly walked to the window, her smile fading into a sad frown. Oh, the Doctor had to make it, he always did and today would be no different. He'd bounce right back to his feet, that tweed jacket a little scuffed, but he would brush it off and dance around his console in delight, shouting his quirky phrases to the old girl. River rested her elbow on the sill, looking at the tiltilating purple violet sky of Venusian space. The twinkling silvers stars gleamed like tears, as if it cried for her man.

Wherever that Captain Jack Harkness was, River Song was prepared to give him a nice whooping for being so-

River shouted in surprise and horror as a lifeless body covered in still wet blood appeared right behind her window.

"Jack!" she gasped in horror. How was River supposed to get to him?! The Captain was wearing a tattered white shirt stained red, his navy cargo pants were ripped and peppered with holes, but most importantly, the time vortex manipulator sparked on his wrist. The coordinates were a little off with the time travel device damaged.

"Bloody hell," River thought aloud. She started to jog to the end of the corridor, creating a runway towards the window. Time was of essence, she had to be quick. In her many jacket pockets she had four guns, including the square gun, extra ammunition, hypnotic lipstick, an oxygen pellet, smart glasses from the planet Viroxen, a voice manipulator, temporary amnesia spray, a few other gadgets and toys, and last of all: a key to the TARDIS. River had to time this perfectly. 15 inches wasn't going to easily shatter but her square gun would make do, it just needed to work quick. Starting off at a slow jog, River began to gain speed on her makeshift runway and began to cover ground. Her arms pumped up and down as her legs moved faster. She held the gun at good precision and held the trigger, the square outline already indenting itself in the glass. The oxygen pellet was in her mouth, ready for her to bite down on to give her temporary supply of oxygen.

The square outline in the window opened up to a portal in space, gravity sucked her towards the opening. River held tight, ready to crash into Jack's awaiting form. She curled tight into a ball, her teeth crunching into the oxygen supply in her mouth as she hurtled into space towards the Captain's drifting body.

If this were deep and unexplored Space, River's skin would have melted clean off in a matter of milliseconds, but Quarter R had a slightly permeable oxygen atmosphere around her that provided some protection against the dangers of space. River kept her mouth closed tight as the oxygen inflated in her lungs and gave her little time, she figured she had 45 seconds at most. Using her legs, River propelled herself from the side of Quarter R and in the direction of Jack Harkness's floating body. She kept her arms wide and clamped down on his cold form when she made contact, her eyes starting to water from being closed so tight. She could feel her lungs and the back of her throat start to ache and strain without proper oxygen flow. 15 seconds.

River pulled out the TARDIS key and placed it against an Atraxi issued tracker she stole from one of the Officers. After a moment a list of numbers and letters appeared on the small digital screen, the TARDIS's coordinates. She punched the numbers into the Time Vortex Manipulator, grabbed hold of Jack's cargo pants pocket, punched the blue button, and prayed to God that she would land on the TARDIS.

There was a rush of wind and her ears popped just as she opened her mouth in an effort to grab a breath of air.


	6. Chapter 6

Clara huddled close to the Doctor. He had always been one to provide relief in a stressful situation with a quirky comment or an ominous threat that scared the enemies senseless. Never had she been alone like this, her life on the line, without the Doctor. Clara had managed to run over and throw the things that had toppled on his listless body when the time machine swerved. She dragged him off to the TARDIS wall again once the banging of the Sycorax had momentarily stopped. Clara had a piece of cord that she wrapped around his body, just in case any other disturbances threatened to topple the precious cargo River hadn't called back in 27 minutes, and the young girl tried to act tough and confident, like she was the Doctor strolling around the console, pulling levers and pressing buttons here and there. The TARDIS was holding itself up poorly, the old girl. She was defiant, however, never allowing them to cross the threshold to her Doctor, at least not yet.  
Clara had checked the monitor time and time again but all she could see was two Sycoraxan soldiers standing with their backs to the door guarding the entrance. Nothing could get in or nothing could come out, unfortunate in her case. She hoped that she hadn't sent Jack to utter oblivion, a one-way ticket to the entirety of space while he was alone and essentially dead. That wouldn't be a fun thing to wake up to.  
"Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm," she repeatedly told herself, "there's no reason for you to get worked up like this. You can do this, Clara, you're an Oswald and Oswalds never give up."  
Clara defiantly walked over to the console once more to take another crack at the incomprehensible TARDIS mainframe. The buttons and pulleys seemed to loom around her, the floor tilting here and there. She was becoming shaky, both Clara and the TARDIS.  
"Get a grip, Clara," she said to herself, her voice shaking,  
 _There was no hope,_ a small voice complained in the back of her mind, _no point in continuing. The Doctor was as good as dead and there was no reason to give up your life because of it, right?_  
 _Shut up! He's the Doctor and he's done everything and more for you and so many others. He has risked his life to make sure that you could have a chance to live and you can repay him by doing the same._  
"TARDIS, please," Clara gently touched the console, "is there any defense mechanisms or weapons I can use to protect us?"  
A low deep hum and creak sounded throughout the machine. Who was she kidding? The Doctor hated any sort of weapons, despised them in fact. The day she saw the Doctor fire a gun meant the day the universe lost its last good soul. Clara needed to think quick and smart to get them out. River was MIA, Jack was somewhere drifting, hopefully in the right direction, in the Time Vortex, the Doctor was like a comatose, and Clara was just a girl in a big alien box. She could do this, there had to be a manual or something in the TARDIS, I mean how were people supposed to know how to fly the thing in these types of situations? Situations involving a giant, evil, hungry sun parasite that decided to feast on the captain and now the companion had to fly the machine with no possible idea of how to even find her room every night.  
She went over to the monitor and typed "TARDIS Engine Details" in the search bar. A series of lengthy paragraphs followed stating the individual composition of the Police Box engine, but she skipped through that. She knew the engine was under the console, she had seen the Doctor hanging there on his makeshift chair fixing it with his ridiculously large engineering goggles.  
" _The TARDIS sleep mode will automatically activate any standard protocols that must run on auxiliary power. Auxiliary power will restore once sleep mode has been disabled. In sleep mode, TARDIS Model 41 cannot time travel or conduct any transportation protocols. TARDIS Model 41 doors will automatically seal itself within an energy barrier that will surround precisely 1-foot radius of TARDIS Model 41 exterior_."  
"Sleep mode it is," Clara pressed the button, "goodnight, TARDIS."  
She could hear the giant engines slowly powering down, the scratching and screeching of the gears not so loud and heart-breaking. There was a gentle hum in the air, like the Police Box was snoring. The doors would lock themselves, so she'd be okay, but for how long? How long was Clara prepared to sit inside the TARDIS with her Doctor as good as dead and the beautiful blue ship dying? She was clever, the Doctor had said it, she could use her brain and think. Her mind was good with technology, so if it could work with Earth tech than what was so hard about learning TARDIS tech? What could she use to transmit a message…  
The Psychic Paper!  
Clara bounded over to the Doctor's strapped body, his head still lolled to one side and his hair was hanging degradingly in his face. The tweed jacket pocket still held the little blue booklet and she gently pulled it out, like she was afraid to wake him up if he was sleeping. Yeah, sleeping, that's better than any other alternative. Now the sonic screwdriver. She pulled that one from the coat's external pocket. Gosh, it would be so easy to rob the Doctor now that she thought of it.  
That wasn't what she was supposed to be thinking about, right now she needed to concentrate on saving the Doctor. The screwdriver was sonic, therefore, it emitted a frequency that certain people had to be tuned in to hear. Hey, if bats could do it, why couldn't she? The Doctor occasionally would reverse the sonic polarity so the screwdriver would send off ear-splitting sound waves to shut people up. If Clara could encode a message into that frequency and sent it out like the Doctor did, then maybe someone would be able to help, someone had to be willing to help her poor alien after everything he had done.  
Clara held the psychic paper in her hands and closed her eyelids tightly. She thought about what she wanted to say and re-said it over and over again. The little blue booklet seemed to send off tingly feeling up her arms and into her mind as if to say, "Yes, I understand." The screwdriver in hand, Clara pointed the glowing green tip to the Psychic Paper and pressed the button down. The familiar screwdriver sound soaked up contents of the paper and began to analyze it like it was meant to do. She quickly did a flip switch by taking off the little wiring panel and reconnected a few wires.

"Please work, please work, please work," Clara prayed.

She held the screwdriver to the ceiling and pressed the button. A series of powerful and obnoxious ear-piercing waves sounded from the screwdriver tip and sent a message to anyone who was open to listening.

 **THE DOCTOR NEEDS HELP,**

 **PLEASE, THE DOCTOR NEEDS HELP.**


	7. Chapter 7

The Sisters of Plentitude were a kind, gentle, and healing cat race who held a long history with the Doctor. When he traveled to the year 5 billion and freed the Face of Boe's burden in his final days, he became a friend to the Cat Nurse Novice Hame. She searched for the Doctor through the Motorway when the Macra and even though the other Sisters didn't approve of his actions when he released the Infected throughout the hospital, he cured them. The Doctor was good. As a child, everyone had heard the stories of the lone Gallifreyan, the Oncoming Storm, the last Time Lord. He traveled in his legendary blue box, drifting throughout Space with the occasional companion. But everyone knew the stories of the Doctor's friends, many of them perished in his continuous conflagration of life. The Time Lord was 900 years old and carried the unthinkable burden of the many who had died in his wake. But as much as the Doctor was considered cruel and dangerous, he was a man of good character and a pure soul. He always put the lives of others before his and that's what Novice Hame admired. So when she heard the ghastly message about the Doctor needing aid, Hame was ready to go. Her bags were packed and she pulled out a Time Vortex Manipulator she kept hidden under her tunics. The Sisters of Plentitude would never approve, but when the Doctor called Novice Hame would be sure to answer.

Clara's ears started to bleed as the sonic screwdriver cast off earsplitting sonic waves holding the message she had encoded. She held the signal as long as she could but when her vision started to haze in and out and a piercing drum penetrated her ears and brain, Clara dropped the screwdriver and stumbled over to the Doctor. She knew she was going to black out and there was a very real possibility she would die if the Sycroaxan troops entered while she and the Doctor were unconscious, but she didn't want to worry at this moment.

Clara crawled over to her alien man, the world spinning around her and red streaks of blood drew thin lines down the side of her face from her ears. When she hugged the Doctor, the clean smell of his tweed jacket always comforted her, even now. She huddled up close to him and laid her head on his shoulder, her eyes closing. She could swear she felt his hand touch hers lightly before she felt herself slip away.

Novice Hame felt a rush around her as her legs steadied on that legendary time machine. The TARDIS materialized around her as the Time Vortex Manipulator on her wrist took her where she needed to go. But it wasn't the main console, she was in a room that didn't have the controls. It looked like a bedroom. It was a very large room with a neatly made wooden bed that had covers that looked as blue as the police box itself. There was a small door that lead to a closet filled with clothes. There were hangers full of beige tweed jackets, dark brown pants, and black boots lined the floor. At the very corner of the large walk-in closet was a pinstriped suit with white converse underneath, a black leather jacket with black shoes, a suit with a flurry of colors and patterns, a white suit with a hat on top that had a red plaid ribbon, and so many other assortments. Novice Hame quickly backed out of the closet, she knew whose room she was in: The Doctor's Room.

The Cat Nurse turned around the room looking for something, where was the Doctor? Novice Hame was here to was a lined piece of paper marked "To-Do List" on the desk in the corner.

Make a bunk-bed

Fix Water Rotators in TARDIS engine

Wash suits

Get new batteries for K-9

Take Clara to Lost Moon of Poosh

Get River's lipstick refilled

Novice Hame stopped quickly, she was in the Doctor's bedroom. It was rude to snoop through his things, but a voice in the back of her mind argued _this man is the last Gallifreyan! He's a legend, a story told to children, and you're in his room, you can see the man behind the mask!_

The Cat Nurse shook her head, no she couldn't do it. It was personal. Pictures lined his wall above the desk with labels under them in scribbled handwriting. Hame hadn't seen the new incarnation of the Doctor yet she knew it had happened. The whole universe raved about it when the Doctor adopted a new face.

There were people in the pictures Novice Hame recognized like Rose Tyler the blond companion with the 10th incarnation of the Doctor. Another, the dark-skinned Martha Jones who accompanied the Doctor when Novice Hame fulfilled the Face of Boe's final wish to find the Time Lord on the Roadway. There were few that the Sister didn't recognize like a man with dark hair in a long Civil War coat that held a large space gun in his hand and a quirky and eager smiled Novice Hame tried to avoid people with. The label underneath said _Captain Jack Harkness_. There was one of a metal dog and a young and pretty brunette labeled _K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith_. And there were pictures of his adventures too, one with green cactus looking people labeled _The Vinvocci,_ another of a flying Titanic ship with a handsome young man with dirty blonde hair labeled _The Titanic and Alonso._

These were just tiny snapshots in the eternal life of the Doctor. Hame took a deep breath, took out a small space ray-gun, and opened the bedroom door to leave.

She quietly placed one foot in front of the other in the empty TARDIS hall. She closed the door silently and looked around before jogging to the corner. Her cap peaked around the corner as she let her green slitted eyes scan the room. No one was there. But why did the message say that the Doctor needed help? It looked like he wasn't even here. Hame needed to find the main console and then she would be able to locate the Doctor somehow. The TARDIS must have a tracking system on him. Novice Hame had never been in the Police Box before and she wanted to look around and see the mythical machine as described in her childhood. She was fortunate to have met the Doctor in New New York even though it didn't seem like it at the time. She had felt angry at the Time Lord at one point when her punishment was to care for the Face of Boe but he had protected her and changed Novice Hame with his wisdom and goodness to see the world as a better place and her task as a reward rather than a punishment. But being in his presence was legendary itself.

Her dark gray frock didn't exactly conceal her in the colorful and blue TARDIS but she wore it with pride, it signified her change of character after the Doctor and the Face of Boe influenced her to see the light in life. Novice Hame heard the console before she saw it. The constant chugging of the Police Box sounded louder and clearer down the hall. Hame's eyes widened and she dropped her space ray gun when she saw the main console of the TARDIS. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. There was a circular ramp around the main control station and the buttons looked like jewels embedded in a mountain. The red-orange light on the walls made it seem that much more magical as tints of turquoise-streaked the interior of the marvelous vehicle. Her mouth was slightly opened in awe as she circled the TARDIS console, one paw gliding over the sleek railing. The circular cutouts in the interior felt like pathways to new and better worlds where she could see and experience new things. Her heart raced and her mind leaped as the famous Police Box doorway made her want to leap out and see the planet it landed on, but something seemed off. The TARDIS had a monotonous hum that never stopped, the small black windows on the entrance rattled and had spiderweb cracks in them. There were black streaks across the door seal like someone got a blowtorch and burned it. The console seemed daunting and sparked a little. It seemed as if a gear was missing in the machine like an essential component was lacking. Her eyes caught something on the floor. She slowly crept up on it, her scanner identifying the substance.

"Blood?" she said aloud, it wasn't Gallifreyan, "human blood?"

Novice Hame knew the Doctor traveled with human companions, maybe this was their blood. She followed the path it laid on the floor, it was a thin line that led right to two slumped figures upon the far TARDIS wall. She gasped and backed away, holding her space ray gun in her paws. Who were these two? There was a male with a slightly wrinkled tweed suit, scuffed pants, floppy hair, and a large forehead and another female with dark hair, small features, slim form, and dried blood streaks coming out of her ears.

Where was he? Where was the Doctor? Did he need help with these two? Good thing she was a nurse. The Time Lord wasn't here yet, but he would eventually show if he sent that message. Hame walked over to the two and got out her medical kit from the year 5,000,000. It had an instant scanner that could detect your entire ancestry, birth information, identity, life, and ailment by just one DNA sample. Novice Hame placed the thumb of the girl on the scanning pad. It made one small beep and pages of information showed on the screen.

 ** _Clara Oswald_**

 ** _Age: 24_**

 ** _Origin: Human_**

 ** _Born: Victorian London, 1890_**

Hame disregarded the other details until she reached the one that would satisfy her medical skills.

 ** _Ailment: Perforated ear drums, 2nd degree burn along the right forearm._**

The Cat Nurse examined the ears and forearm with a quick glance and gentle paws and knew what to do. She squeezed some instant burn relief spray on her forearm and it already started to heal. The new pink skin shined and Hame placed an anti-scarring wrap on it for the skin to recover better. For the perforated membrane in Clara's ear, Hame placed an eardrum patch upon the year and administrated a syringe of antibiotics to the mend the rupture. She should heal fine.

The Sister seemed suspicious of the man, but she plucked one stray hair from the man's head and placed it on the pad. Her slitted eyes narrowed at him, who was he? The hair scanned once and a small alarm rang. It was something Novice Hame never experienced. On the screen it said:

 **BIOLOGICAL FORM NON-EXISTENT**

What did it mean non-existent? She was looking at him right now. If only the Doctor could explain…

She tried it again and the same message appeared. Hame growled a little, why wasn't it working? From deep within her bag she pulled out two vials. Hame would do this the old-fashioned way. One of the Sister of Plentitude had given her a vial of this chemical once they were testing with the Infected and she'd never thought she'd use it again. She placed one empty test tube in between her fangs and twirled the vial in between her fingers containing the clear chemical solution. She gently placed the hair sample into the waiting vial and closed it tight with the cap, then shaking it in between her fingers. Novice Hame set it down as she reached far into her pack and pulled out a thick pamphlet listing all species of the world, each one with a distinct color. If the solution turned to that certain color then that was the species identification. The color for a human was a pale periwinkle and Hame held up the vial expecting to see that tint. Her eyes narrowed even further with confusion and suspect when the solution was a brilliant gold color that seemed to swirl and move with mischief. The Cat Nurse flipped rapidly through the pamphlet looking for this odd and strangely alive color.

 _Who are you?_ Hame said to herself while looking at the unconscious and unidentifiable alien. This man was not human and was listed as non-existent, what secrets did he hold? What was his past?

The Sister placed the booklet right in front of her eyes, scanning and searching intently for that unmistakable gold. Her heart knew she had seen it before, but who, who, who?!

Hame dropped the book when one clawed finger stopped at the title. Her heart beat at a hundred miles and hour and her soft fur bristled with shock and disbelief. That vibrant gold color was listed under Gallifreyan origin. That meant this man was him. This man was from Gallifrey. This man was the Oncoming Storm. This was the legendary man with the TARDIS. This was that man that gave her task so long ago. This was the lone Time Lord. This man was the Destroyer of Worlds. This man was the Upbringer of Universes. This man was the Predator of the Daleks. This man was man was _the_ Doctor.


	8. Chapter 8

Clara felt herself start to pierce that black blanket that covered her so soundly, "What?" she tried to mumble. There was noise in the back, it sounded distant but urgent. There was a commotion and she thought she heard glass break. A sharp pain shot to her brain as she was roughly pulled to her feet by a harsh hand.

"Wha-" her eyes were barely opening and she was expected to stand? "What's-what's happening?"

Her voice sounded distorted and groggy to her sensitive ears. There was no longer a monotonous droning sound in her head, which was good, but that also meant she could hear everything else more clear.

Screams and curses echoed through the haze, but the voice was unfamiliar. There was caterwauling and that never happened on the TARDIS. It wasn't River, definitely not the Doctor, not Jack, then who?

A pleasant thought reached her sluggish brain: Had someone answered her message? She was right, the Doctor did have friends out there in the deep, and someone was destined to hear the call for help. If not those friends, then the Galactic Space Police, The Atraxi. Her shoulders sagged with relief.

"Get up!" she heard someone scream, "human girl, please get up!"

 _Clara, get a hold of yourself_ , a voice in her mind commanded her, _get up, get up!_

She grunted with effort as she forced her eyelids to open. A tsunami of lights, colors, and blurs met her sensitive pupils and she immediately shut them again.

 _Ow…._

"Come on," that alien female voice said again, "come-ahh!"

Clara heard a yelp and a hiss.

"Get off me you galactic swine!" the unfamiliar woman screamed with rage, "get your slimy, dirty, Sycoraxan hands off me!"

 _Oh no, the Sycorax._

This made Clara summon up a burst of energy and she forced herself to open her eyes once more. Her hearing was unreliable, her eyes were adjusting, and her legs were jell-o, but she was aware.

"Yes," Clara's eyes tried to focus on the figures before them. There were two orange creatures with large claws and antennae that were restraining a smaller figure, probably the unfamiliar woman, who had oddly light-brown skin covered in a smoky gray tunic, "yes, that's it!" the woman encouraged, "they can't understand us, they only speak Sycoraxic! I have my space gun in the corner of the room! They, still think you're unconscious, so just go grab-"

The instructions were cut short when the feminine voice became muffled. Clara's still blurry and dotted vision made out an orange claw forcefully closing the woman's mouth. There was a feline growl coming off her as they began to drag the poor girl towards the entrance.

Clara was still on the floor, but her head had managed to lift 3 inches off the ground. Her arm felt amazingly better, wow. She was able to somewhat make out a white wrap on it, but now she could actually move it. The Sycoraxan troops didn't understand English, that was a relief and they were too busy with that poor lady to even notice Clara who started to heed the instructions she was given. Get the space-ray gun at the corner of the room, do something with it. Plain and simple. She placed one tingly hand in front of the other and started to crawl in the direction she thought the gun was. The Doctor was still slumped on that post, her makeshift rope around him clung to his body weakly. Where the heck was River and Jack? She sent the captain away like an hour ago at least.

Her palms touched the cool paneling of the TARDIS floor and she kept her eyes closed. It was better that way. Her knees shuffled across the glass and her dragging shoes made squeaking sounds. Clara was too disorientated to even register the loud, stomping footsteps approach her small form. She felt the tip of a pointy, big boot collide with her stomach and her breath escaped her. The companion wheezed on the floor just as her fingertips wrapped around the trigger of the small space ray gun. She heard struggling from the far corner of the room as the strange woman kept fighting her opponent. The bottom of that evil boot pressed against her small hand and fingers, her eyes watered and she yelled as the alien crushed her bones. The Sycoraxan soldier pulled her up swiftly and wrapped a big burly claw around her neck. Clara's feet barely touched the ground.

Her eyesight finally started to return (now it decided to cooperate) and she saw that the woman being restrained had odd features. Her skin was a light brown but it seemed…furry. Her white teeth were fangs and whiskers jutted out from her cheeks. Her small pink nose was not a regular shape like a humans and it rested below yellow slitted eyes. She wore an ashen gray hat that most likely covered ears.

"Oh-oh my God," Clara choked from under the pressing arm, "you're a-a-"

"Yes," the woman said in a struggling voice, "I'm a Sister of Plentitude, there are no more of us left so I know it must be weird, but-"

"You're-you're a cat."

"What? Of course I am a-"

Her sentence was cut short as the Sycoraxan soldier holding the feline woman down crushed her windpipe.

The familiar creak of the TARDIS door opening was not comforting at the moment. How did they enter? How did they break down those sealed doors? The next thing that came into her vision made her cringe and tears stung her eyes. A group of about 12 alien soldiers entered, a Sycorax led the troop and it had better more advanced gear, distinguishing his high status.

The head alien waved a finger and one Sycoraxan soldier broke the assembled group. It held a small metal device in its hand. The head general said something in a rough foreign tongue. The soldier at his side pressed a few buttons and the translated paragraph echoed through the ailing TARDIS walls.

"Assistants of the Doctor, your help will no longer be rewarded by the Time Lord with travels across the universe as his death will soon follow. This Galifreyan will pay for his crimes against the Sycoraxic race for the massacre of our people. His sins will not be forgiven and this moment will be told through the generations of our new-born young of the day the Doctor fell at the hands of the people he once destroyed."

"No!" Clara struggled, "I know the Doctor, he would never have committed this crime to your people!"

"Enough, Earthling!" The General snarled at her with menacing yellow teeth, "Retrieve the Time Lord!"

"Don't you touch him!" hissed the cat alien, "don't you lay one finger upon his body!"

Four Sycoraxic soldiers broke rank and jogged over to the unconscious Doctor in perfect sync. They heaved his body up like a rag doll, one holding each arm and leg. One of them placed a metal clamp across his torso and a series of chains held his limbs together.

There was a flash and a gust of wind. Clara almost cried as she turned her head to see River Song standing there tall and proud with two large space guns in each hand, one extra large one slung across her back, one strapped on each leg, and another two on her belt.

"Hello, boys," River smiled with malicious glee. She aimed and pulled the trigger faster than Clara could blink. Immediately five of the twelve crashed to the floor with large gaping burn holes blasted into their chests. The smell of cauterized alien wafted through the air.

"KILL THEM!" The General's shout roared through the air.

He melted into his troop's formation as they circled around him and held their weapons up high. The two aliens holding Clara and Novice Hame dragged them over to the TARDIS entrance for a quick hostage get away. The four soldiers holding the Doctor immediately took positions. Two of them ordered to keep the Time Lord confined and they hurried under the TARDIS main console while the other two ran to join the rest of the soldiers. River had vanished. Once she had stopped firing green bolts, she made herself disappear in the dizzying TARDIS secret places, stalking the troop like a hungry jungle cat.

"Come and find me," River's eerie voice echoed off the walls.

"Don't try and play silly games, Professor River Song, we know who you are and your relationship with the Doctor. He will see his final hours today. It's useless to hide, Professor, come out and accept your fate," the Sycoraxan General growled.

Her response was one laser shot that hit a soldier square in the chest. It went down with piercing screams.

"That was a great shot, River!" a new but pleasantly familiar voice echoed off the walls.

"Jack!" Clara shouted with glee before the arm cut her off.

"Well, way to announce my secret cover in front of a horde of Sycoraxan troops, Clara," Jack teased, "but aside from all formalities," the rejuvenated man stepped from his hiding place behind one of the TARDIS beams, "the name is Captain Jack Harkness."

"FIRE!" an angry voice yelled and a chorus of blasters shot at Jack who leapt back behind the beam. River took this opportunity to fire from behind, all attention gone from her now. Novice Hame even dared a maneuver as she unsheathed her claws and swiped behind her. The soldier holding her backed away as green blood spurted from the cat scratches down his face.

Hame was running towards Clara, blaster fire being shot at River and Jack, the Doctor covered by the soldiers. The cat woman was headed towards Clara, sizing up the Sycorax holding her until Clara ordered, "Get the Doctor! The Doctor!"

Hame seemed to understand and dove under the swiping arm of the soldier that approached her. The Sister swiftly stood up and kicked out with her legs. The soldier went crashing down, losing his hold on Clara who scrambled away from him and snatched Novice Hame's gun from the floor. She shut her eyes tightly and fired at the fallen soldiers. Tears stung her closed eyelids.

"Hey!" Clara yelled, her voice cracking. Novice Hame turned around at the exclamation and leapt in the air as the companion threw the gun and it sailed through the air into the Cat Nurse's hands.

Novice Hame fired at one of the soldiers that came at her, a burning hole seared his chest and he screamed in a foreign language. She prepared to shoot another when a bolt zoomed towards the cat and hit her shoulder.

Hame hissed in pain and wailed as she fell to the floor. Clara screamed and ran to help her, but the advancing Sycoraxic soldier got there faster. He picked the Sister up by the injured shoulder and Hame wailed once more.

"Goodbye, Cat," the soldier spat and his greedy smile made something stir inside Clara. The dark haired girl ran up from behind and swiped the dagger from his belt. She charged and stuck the edge of the blade into the back of the alien's neck and it went to the hilt. Hame watched with eyes filled with horror as the end of the blade pierced the skin and appeared through the front of his throat.

The soldier dropped Novice Hame who held her shoulder and struggled to get out of the way as the dead Sycorax fell to the floor in front of her.

Clara held her mouth in shock and tears streamed down her cheeks. The Cat Nurse struggled to her feet and rested a furry hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Hey," the Sister said gently, "let's go save your Doctor."

"W-who are you?" Clara said shakily, she felt light-headed.

"My name is Novice Hame, I'm a friend of the Doctor's, I got the message," she smiled softly.

Clara nodded vigorously, grasping onto that detail with all her sanity. She was never a killer, she never wanted to know that two souls lost their lives because of her hand.

Hame placed an arm across Clara's back as they hunched over to protect themselves from the continuous blaster fight behind them. Clara dared steal a look and saw that 7 more of the vile aliens had fallen to the floor, dead. She silently reminded herself that she would personally give Jack a kiss of her own free will when this was all over. The Cat Nurse Novice Hame stumbled for a moment and held her shoulder in pain. The companion remembered the blaster wound on her arm. Clara unraveled the clean white wrap from her forearm and gave it to the Sister. She smiled with gratitude and placed it against her wound, her painful hisses were barely audible.

"We need to get this chain off," Clara crouched next to the Doctor. Hame and she had dragged his body behind the TARDIS's pillar. Thank God for Galifreyan architecture.

"There's a deactivation mechanism somewhere," Hame stooped next to the Doctor as well, "if I could just find-"

Clara and the Cat jumped back with surprise and escalating anxiety as the Doctor flinched. In his catatonic state, they saw his body jump and fall with pain.

"W-what was that?" Clara's voice was barely a whisper.

"I don't know," Hame was dumbfounded, "he can't be feeling anything, and there are no signs of him waking up," the Sister placed a hand on his forehead, "he's still burning up."

Clara's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and contemplation. What was happening to him? She flinched herself when the Doctor winced again.

"What on Earth-" Clara shouted and ducked as a blaster shot hit the TARDIS interior right above her head, sparks rained down on her.

The Doctor flinched again.

"Wait," Hame examined the Doctor and also peeked her head out to scan the pursuing battle between Jack and River vs. the remaining Sycoraxan troops. The General had a large black blaster in his claws and was firing large and searing shots at the police box's inside.

Everytime a bolt hit the TARDIS, the Doctor would flinch.

"Clara!" the Cat Nurse turned to the scared and confused companion, "grab a blaster! Shoot at the TARDIS!"  
"What?" even though Clara's tone was outraged, she obeyed the Sister by picking up a stray blaster between her fingers from a nearby fallen Sycoraxan, "why would we do that? This is our only escape!"  
"Trust me," Hame cringed when pain flared in her shoulder, "just do it!"  
Clara shook her head with disapproval but heeded the advice from Novice Hame. She aimed the nozzle of the blaster towards the TARDIS walls and began to fire.

"This will wake you up," the Cat Nurse looked down at the fallen form of the Doctor before pointing and shooting. The TARDIS walls began to shake from impact and Clara was bloody well sure she had woken up from sleep mode. The Doctor was now verbally groaning and holding his abdomen like someone was punching him. Clara couldn't watch as the connection between the TARDIS and her Time Lord began to flare with pain signals that resonated right through the Doctor's core.

Jack and River just held on tight and kept firing as only one solider and the General remained. Clara knew this was now or never. She pointed the nozzle of the gun towards the direction of the console and shouted, "All of you! Guns to the console!"

Jack and River looked at each other with outrage and confusion but when they saw Hame and Clara point and the struggling form of the Time Lord, they didn't question. River turned her head away as she fired four shots at the console, her heart wrenching each time she heard the impact. Glass erupted into shards and buttons exploded off of the console mainframe. Jack's face was emotionless and stern as he repeatedly let off bolts from his ray gun. Sparks showered over him like fiery rain.

Deep down within the Doctor, he could feel his gut wrench and his stomach tighten as his brain was attacked by telepathic symbols from his one and only Sexy Thing. He felt her trying to shake him awake, her mental attack pulling him out of that dark and black haze he settled himself in. He knew he wan't supposed to be awake yet, but now was the time to get up and do something. Things felt wrong, horribly wrong, he could feel it. When he wasn't there to buffer the actions of his friends, all bloody hell broke loose across the universes. If the Doctor couldn't save them, no one could. All at once he felt a massive screech from his TARDIS straight through his brain. She screamed in pain and determination as the Police Box urged him to sit up and awaken.

With a roar, the Doctor flew upright. His body was held down by a metallic clamp, but his mind was bright and alive with fury and rage. He tried to get his bearings and look around him, gosh, he couldn't have been out for that long. The Doctor saw a damaged TARDIS on sleep mode, open TARDIS doors, Sycoraxan bodies strewn across the floor, Jack, River, Clara, and…Novice Hame? He hadn't seen her in so long.

What worried him even more was the lack of care to his beautiful, beautiful machine. This was his prized possession, his Sexy Thing, the last item connected to a long and tragic history. There were blaster burns all over her walls, her console was damaged and sparking, bodies and blood littered her floors, and here he was sleeping.

 _I'm sorry, old girl._

His face darkened with an uncommon rage. His anger ran deep and true, no one messed with his friends and especially his TARDIS. She had kept him safe long enough.

"Clara!" he yelled with a dark and deep tone, "my screwdriver!"

She whipped her head around and it was full of relief. Clara dug the sonic pen from her pocket and threw it over to her alien. It sailed through the air and dropped in his hands. The sonic beam unlocked the metal casing confining his body and he stood up slowly. His eyes flitted back and forth with fury. The Doctor was enraged, and he honestly had no idea what was going to happen next.

"ENOUGH!" The resurrected Time Lord called for silence. All firing and noise stopped. The General stepped out from behind his last man, "ah, General, a coward to the last man."

"I will take no such reprobation from you, Time Lord," the Sycoraxan General snarled and spat, "It's time you die, like Galifrey did long ago."

"You have no right to even speak of my home," the Doctor's voice was cruel and threatening, "you hurt my friends, you hurt me."

"You annihilated my whole race! My family!" the General cried, "it's high time you face your fate, starting with the death of your precious companions," the alien laughed, "look at you lot! So loyal to this Galifreyan man when he will one day leave you behind. Don't you see? It's not worth the suffering and pain for the future. Accept it now and forever be free."

River reloaded her gun, Jack wiped some Sycoraxan ash off his jacket, Clara stood tall, and Novice Hame hissed.

"You see, General," the Doctor raised a smug eyebrow, "my friends aren't like your friends. I actually promise them beauty and warmth in a world of cold, chaotic cruelty. Your men died with the promise of vengeance that will never be served. How can you live with that?" the Time Lord sighed deeply, "you've upset my TARDIS and you've scared my friends but I will find somewhere for you. A planet where you and your surviving man rebuild and regroup, I guarantee it."

The soldier standing next to the General quivered with fear, but the Sycroaxan chief only snarled, "like the guarantee you made to my fleeing people from your precious planet Earth?! I will seek my REVENGE-AH!"

The General sunk to his knees abruptly as a shot from behind interrupted his "promise for revenge". River held a smoking ray gun in front of her as the blaster wound burned the skin of the Sycoraxic General. Green blood freely flowed from the gruesome wound and Novice Hame took a shot at the remaining soldier who crashed to the floor. The Doctor cringed and looked away.

"Doc-tor," the General coughed, green blood pouring from his dying lips, "you don't turn to face your enemy."

"You aren't my enemy, General," the Doctor took a tired step forward. He seemed to have aged a 100 years in a minute.

"Kill me," the alien growled, "I don't want your face to be the one that the last Sycorax in the universe will see. You are our Destructor, Doctor, live…with….that."

The last word that escaped its lips was an exhale.

The Doctor breathed and closed his eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

Jack didn't know what the hell to do next. That night after their brief rendezvous with the Sycorax, the Captain felt good, accomplished. They had defeated an enemy that would've only grown stronger and attack harder when the time came, the Doctor should've felt grateful. But, as per usual, the Time Lord was upset with guilt and grief. When the General died on the TARDIS floor the Doctor didn't say a word to anyone. He sprinted to the console and immediately pressed down buttons and pulled plugs.

You could hear him mutter silently to her, "I'm sorry, girl, I'm so sorry."

Clara, River, the Cat, and Jack, himself, just stood there with emotionless expressions. The Doctor was saved, well, at least, they thought he was. One minute the guy was down for the count and the next he's challenging Sycoraxan War Generals. I mean, the guy was unpredictable. He did feel for the Doctor, hundreds and hundreds of years with no consolation were something the man had to hold, but he was his friend. Jack would do anything for the Doctor.

The Doctor acted as if they weren't there, not like he was ignoring them the Doctor wasn't that type, but as if he really didn't realize they were standing there. It was probably so he could acknowledge that this was his burden to carry alone and not for his friends.

"Doctor?" River cleared her throat.

The Doctor continued to run around the console and talk to himself.

"Doctor," River raised her eyebrows.

Jack saw that he kept doing his things, but a look of sadness crossed his face.

"Doctor!" Clara stepped forward.

The man finally stopped and placed both hands on the console, his head bowed. It lasted for a moment. He swirled himself around on his heels and faced the group. A Cat nurse from the year 5 billion, an omnisexual civil war alien from the Boeshane Penninsula, a human girl with three different lives in three different eras, and the daughter of his best friends that was born on an asteroid and had killed him, multiple times, in the past. This was his legacy and these were his friends.

"Ah, yes," he smiled but his face was filled with sadness, "thank you all for coming and helping protect me and the Mrs.," he patted the TARDIS rail once. Whistles, bells, alarms, and creaks echoed throughout the great hall, "I just need to make a few repairs as she was damaged during the course of events. Please, find a room, make yourself comfortable, tomorrow I will return you all to your respective places in time or wherever your heart desires. It's the least I can do for your efforts."

The Doctor's words were laced with honey but his eyes held immense guilt.

"Novice Hame," the Time Lord bounded down the TARDIS console steps and towards the Sister of Plentitude, "how are things in the year five billion? How's New New York?"

She smiled, "Things are well Doctor, and it's because of you that they are. I haven't seen this new face, your hair is different."

He laughed, "Yes, it is a new look, I'll give you that, but it has been good to me so far."

"I hope so," she placed a furry hand on his cheek, "listen, Doctor, do not be weighed down by the tragedies of the past, but focus on the good that can come out of it."

"Easier said than done," he looked down to the floor.

"Think, if poor Rose Tyler had not been separated from you, you wouldn't have met all these new and equally amazing and talented partners you have," Hame's slitted yellow eyes held wisdom within them, "you are an extraordinary man, Doctor, with an even more extraordinary past, but look for the most extraordinary future. You are just a man, but a man that people love and care about. Don't let them think otherwise."

"Thank you, Hame," the Doctor nodded, "will you be staying for the night?"

"I will for you and because I want a good look around your TARDIS."

She pulled away, a twinkle in her eye, and walked down the TARDIS hall.

"Well, I'll be spending the night with you too, bud," the Captain clapped the Doctor's shoulder, "just like old times."

"Ah, yes," the Doctor said drily, "always a pleasure, Captain Jack."

The Captain gave the Doctor a big, _big_ hug, Clara a kiss on the cheek, and mouthed "Call Me" to River who rolled her eyes.

"That one is one-of-a-kind, I tell you," River chuckled and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Doctor.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor smiled, "but you'll never find another like him."

"I don't doubt that!" they heard an echoing voice from down the hall.

"Oh, get to bed, you big loaf!" the Doctor called, teasingly.

"Doctor, I'll be getting to my room," Clara said, tiredly.

"Wait, Clara," he grabbed her arm as she was walking out, "I just wanted to say thank you and to the Captain for risking your lives to protect me."

"Doctor, you saved a whole planet," Clara said warmly, "it's the least we can do for everything you've done for us."

"I'd like the hear the story soon if you don't mind. The Brave Clara Oswald versus an Army of Sycorax," the Time Lord raised his eyebrows amusingly.

"It wasn't exactly an army," she laughed.

"Sounds better for the title," he quipped, "now, off you go!"

She leaped forward and wrapped her arms around the tweed suit wearing alien.

"I was so scared, Doctor, don't ever do that to me again."

He placed his arms around her back, "Trust me, I don't think we'll be seeing any sun parasites soon."

She pulled away at last and trudged down the TARDIS hall to her room.

"It just leaves you and me now," River called slyly.

"And my old Sexy Thing," he swiped a hand across the Police Box's rail.

"Am I the third wheel now?" she had a bubbly tone to her voice, "is my husband cheating on me?"

He gave her a bemused sideways glance, "How did you get here, River?"

"Clara sent Jack with the Vortex Manipulator."

"What?" he turned around suddenly, "that's extremely dangerous, Jack could've been lost in the Vortex, or you would've never found him, or some other creature could've gotten hold of him, you know the Captain, his Vortex Manipulator never works-"

"Doctor," River placed a finger to his lips, "you're ranting again. Everything worked out fine in the end."

"I wouldn't exactly call it fine," he slipped away and slumped down on the TARDIS steps.

"You have an incredibly vast sense of guilt, Doctor," River sat down next to him, "it's eating you alive."

"All these people that enter my life, even in the smallest way end up getting hurt, River," his depressed tone made her heart tear, "I just want it to stop. I just wish that I wasn't so selfish, that I didn't bring people into my world and save them the trouble."

"You mean to save _you_ the trouble," River pointed out calmly, "look, Doctor, you're the last Gallifreyan creature in this universe, you're lonely. Your charming and attractive attitude makes people want to be around you. You don't force them to enter your life, it's their choice."

"But it's me who offers them a spot in the TARDIS, it's me who shows them the universe, how can someone walk away from that?"

"Mom and Dad did, well, at least, they tried to, sometimes," River bumped his shoulder.

At the mention of Rory and Amy, the Doctor's mood dropped even further.

"Besides, Doctor, you've still got me."

"But for how long?" he turned to her, "how long before something happens to you? Before you get sucked away into another dimension, kidnapped by the Slitheen, killed by the Angels, or swept off your feet by some other man."

"Don't be silly now," River rolled her eyes, "I'm a big girl I can handle myself. If you had forgotten I was born on an asteroid, raised by a military general, and had Amy as a mom. Nothing got past her and you're never ever going to lose me."

"Promise?"

"Promise," she smiled, "now let's go fix our girl."

The Doctor stood up cheerfully and jumped to the main console.

"Time to get to work."


End file.
